Fabien Onteniente shoots “Les enfants des Justes” in Périgord with Gérard Lanvin and Mathilde Seigner

It turns in Périgord! Fabien Onteniente and the whole TV movie team Children of the Righteous started filming on the banks of the Dordogne. Mathilde Seigner and Gérard Lanvin camp a couple during the Second World War who help the Jews to hide and flee the Nazi soldiers. 250 extras from the region also take part in the filming. “We believe it!”, said a young actor in wonder at the wheel of his German car.

With Children of the Righteous, the director of Camping literally changes gender. Adapted from Christian Signol’s novel, the story tells the story of a childless couple who will take in a little Jewish girl during the Second World War. For Gérard Lanvin, it was important to highlight these shadow heroes who opposed each other in Périgord and everywhere else. “These people acted at a time when it was very dangerous”, underlines the actor.

Christian Signol’s novel, released in 2014, was based on the story of his grandparents. Bakers from Dordogne, who, in 1942, in full German occupation, gave bread to Spanish refugees, Jews and exodus survivors. Simple people, the Righteous as we called them later. In the villages of Périgord, on the border of the occupied zone and the free zone, these testimonies are numerous and precious.. The locals remember. “We experienced this in our youth, deprivation … And me, what strikes me a lot are those German footsteps that we heard as kids in the streets, the noise of boots”, Raymonde reports with emotion, an extra on the film.

The telefilm “Les enfants des Justes” will be broadcast on France 2 during the second half of 2022 on the occasion of the commemoration of the Vel d’Hiv roundup (July 16 and 17, 1942).